Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament

Newsletter No. 42

May 2001

OUR LADY OF THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT

On May 13 we celebrate the feast of "Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament." This is the title that St. Peter Julian Eymard gave Our Lady to honor her, as he so often stated, the Blessed Mother was the first and most perfect adorer of Jesus. Our Lady adored Jesus from the very first moment of conception in her womb. She continued her adoration throughout His earthly life.The early Church Fathers wrote that after Jesus ascended into heaven, St. John the beloved Apostle would have provided the Eucharist for Our Lady as he cared for her. Our Lady spent most of her days and nights in Adoration of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. In early church times the Eucharist was customarily reserved in the homes of all Christians. Our Lady's daily communion and adoration united her to Jesus even more intimately than during His years with her at Nazareth.

St. John Damascus points out, in his 6th century writings, "the body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist is the very same body born of the Virgin Mary."When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist we receive the Son of Mary. Where we find the Son we find the Mother, in adoration.

Consider another May 13 occurrence of great importance. In 1916, preceding the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima, Portugal an Angel appeared three times. The first apparition of the Angel to three children, Jacinta, Lucia, and Francisco, frightened them. The Angel said, "Fear not, I am the Angel of Peace, pray with me: My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust and do not love Thee."

During the Angel's second apparition the message to the children, in part, was "Pray, pray a great deal! The Heart of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy for you." At the third apparition the Angel, while holding in his hands a chalice surmounted by a Host from which drops of Blood were falling into the chalice then leaving the chalice and Host suspended in the air, prostrated himself on the ground and repeated this prayer three times:

"My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust and do not love Thee. O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners."

After the harbinger's three apparitions and messages, Our Lady appeared on May 13, 1917. She asked the children to pray the following prayer with her,

"O Most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee! My God, My God, I love Thee in the Most Blessed Sacrament!"

There were six apparitions of Our Lady over the next six months, culminating in the Miracle of the Sun on October 13, 1917, witnessed by seventy thousand people. This miracle, is foretelling the coming glory of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament! Finally, in 1929, Sister Lucia was given the famous vision of the Most Holy Trinity. God, our Father and the Holy Spirit were present with Jesus, Who was hanging on the Cross. A Chalice with a Host above it was suspended alongside of Jesus. Blood was flowing from the head of Jesus and His wounded side over the Host and into the Chalice. From the left hand of Jesus water flowed down on the Altar forming the words "Graces and Mercy". Our Lady was beneath the right hand of Jesus, holding her Immaculate Heart in her left hand and the Rosary in her right hand.

According to the Fatima messages, if these requests and directives are heeded, there will be great graces and mercy poured out upon our world resulting in a new era of peace. The Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph, and these promises will be fulfilled, when the Eucharistic Heart of her Son Jesus reigns throughout the world in Perpetual Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament!

Mariologists have noted that devotions to Mary lead us to Jesus in the Eucharist. Wherever there are shrines dedicated to Mary her Son reigns in the Holy Eucharist where he is received, worshiped and adored. Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, wrote in his 1988 Marian encyclical, "The piety of the Christian people has always rightly sensed a profound link between devotion to the Blessed Virgin and worship of the Eucharist." He later stated in Rome in June of 1994, while talking about the Eucharist, "I would also like to repeat my invitation to you to make Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament a habitual practice in all Christian communities."

Our Eucharistic Lord is the center of all other devotion within our church and the primary source of grace and mercy. The May 13, 1856 founding of the "Congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament" by St. Peter Julian Eymard to spread Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration and their entrustment to "Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament" was a prophetic foreshadowing of her May 13, 1917 Fatima apparition! Let us honor "Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament" in the way she most desires, by receiving, adoring and giving glory to her Son in the Most Blessed Sacrament! (Copyright 1995, Linda Bracy. All rights reserved.)

Our Lady said " Do whatever He tells you" (Jn. 2:5). The only request Jesus ever made of His apostles is " Could you not watch one hour with Me?" (Mt.26:40). Please be generous with your donations for the spread of PEA throughout the world!